The End Is Nigh/Unused Levels
This is a sub-page of The End Is Nigh.
 | This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. Notes: There's still tons of levels left. Some of the in-game images here need conversion to 1280x720 and better cropping.
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All levels here were found within game.gpak/tilemaps/ but never assigned a spot on the map in game.gpak/data/map.csv.
Contents
0-1.lvl
This level has three platforms, one of which has a vertical conveyor belt, and a Retinara. Notably, Retinaras never appear anywhere outside of Ruin, and even if this were Ruin, Ruin does not have any conveyor belts in it in the final game. This may have been either a Ruin level or an attempt to introduce Retinaras as early as The Machine.
1x-1.lvl
This would have been a secret level, as evidenced by the yellow screen transition tags and x in the filename, and it may have been used in The End. The level above this would have two pits, the right of which being a death trap that can only be escaped by selecting Leave Area in the pause menu. This level connects downwards into 1x-2.lvl. Curiously, this has no debug spawn placed in it, implying this level was either scrapped very early on or made during a phase of development where debug spawns were not used. The fact that this is titled "1x-1" and not "1xd-1" also implies that either the "As Above" and "So Below" disambiguation did not exist when this was made or The End would originally have no "As Above" secrets.
1x-2.lvl
This would also have been a secret level. Some of the sideways spiked blocks in it can be stood on, but it's unknown if this was intended or even possible while this level was made. This connects upwards into 1x-1.lvl and downwards into 1x-3.lvl. Like the other 1x levels, this has no debug spawn.
1x-3.lvl
This connects upwards into 1x-2.lvl, but if it is a secret level, then it is breaking the standard of when yellow screen transition tags should be used versus green ones. Once you get to this screen, you will be going downwards too fast to latch onto the hook to the right. The only way to get to the "exit" is to either die so that you respawn at the top with your vertical momentum reset, or pull off a frame-precise maneuver and grab onto the edge of a particular spiked block as shown above. For this level to be solved the obvious way, you would need either greater horizontal speed, a lower maximum fall speed, or to discard all of your preserved momentum when crossing screens. The exit connects to a non-secret level instead of just having an exit warp, so the whole 1x sequence might have been a shortcut to a later level.
3.lvl
The purpose of this level is unknown, but it (and other one-number-name levels) likely has nothing to do with the actually used levels starting with its number, seeing how it doesn't share any mechanics with those levels. It has one tower-like structure that falls down when the player steps onto it.
4.lvl
This level has multiple rectangular platforms. Some of them fall down when the player touches them.
4c-test.lvl
This level was most likely meant to test the lighting effect for The Hollows.
5.lvl
This level has a few spike gaps with hooks placed strangely throughout, and a Retrograde-esque moving spike row.
6.lvl
This level has 4 columns moving up and down with hooks on the sides of them.
artifacts.lvl
This level was most likely used to test collecting the friend pieces and assembling the friend. The filename suggests that the friend pieces were different at some point in development.
wavers.lvl
A simple level that shows off the sine wave movement tags. The three blocks will move off-screen to the left at a consistent speed in wavy patterns of varying speed.
wheee.lvl
An interesting but rather easy challenge level. A drop-through platform and a completely solid platform come in from the bottom, and you have to drop to the solid platform, make it over the spike corridor, then dodge the moving spike blocks while the platform goes down to the exit. The moving spike blocks in the latter half can be avoided entirely by going to the very right of the screen and staying there, as long as you don't stand directly above the spike sticking out of the rightmost wall. There are no screen transition tags here, so it must have been scrapped early.
wind1.lvl
A test level for the wind used in the last few levels of Ruin. Due to the excess amount of right-facing wind tags, the wind here is so strong that you cannot go left or hang onto any right-facing edges. The wind in the used version of Ruin is only ever provided with two left-facing wind tags.
